


Ashes to Ashes

by GoldenClover



Category: The Book Thief - Markus Zusak
Genre: Canonical Character Death, Character Death Fix, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-13
Updated: 2016-07-13
Packaged: 2018-07-23 16:42:52
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 790
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7471296
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GoldenClover/pseuds/GoldenClover
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There was a flash of colour and a chorus of terror, and Rudy Steiner was thrown like a ragdoll. He slumped in the dust and the remnants and the remains, and his face was an ice cube of tragedy.<br/>That was the end of Rudy Steiner’s short life.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ashes to Ashes

It was the early hours of the morning in the little German town of Molching, and on a street named heaven, he world was quiet and dark, and old women and children alike slept peacefully in their beds, safe in the knowledge that they were alive and breathing.

Not for long.

There was a flash of colour and a chorus of terror, and Rudy Steiner was thrown like a ragdoll. He slumped in the dust and the remnants and the remains, and his face was a yellowed book of tragedy.

That was the end of Rudy Steiner’s short life.

Dust licked his face and shrapnel ate his hair and the silence was booming. The sky was a screaming, churning ring of fire, burning red flames and flashing black smoke, and Rudy Steiner was quiet and cold underneath it. I lifted his soul in my arms, and his soul was light, so light. A child’s soul. He came easily to me, slipping silently through the veil of life and death, and Rudy Steiner didn’t fight me. He didn’t beg me, didn’t try to hit me, didn’t try to barter with me. He just blinked at me with sad, pleading eyes, and said one word.

“Please.”

And I faltered. His face was so still and calm, and his eyes begged me, implored me,  _ please please I don’t want to die _ . I was frozen, indecision rooting me to the spot. Rudy Steiner was supposed to die. Rudy Steiner was already dead. His time was over. 

And yet, here I was. Letting a dead boy beg me for his life. I couldn’t, I shouldn’t, and I wouldn’t. I shook my head sternly.

“You’re not the only one who wants to live.”   
Rudy Steiner didn’t move, didn’t react. His face remained eerily serene, but his eyes were a different story. Those eyes. desperate, wide, blue eyes. Child’s eyes. Rudy Steiner was just a child, too young to die and too young for his soul to be carried away. 

I told myself, ordered myself,  _ it’s his time. It’s time for him to die, it doesn’t matter how young he is. Younger have died _ . I had to stay true. Rudy Steiner’s clock had ticked its last, and now, now it was his time to move on from life. And I told myself this, trying, and failing, to convince myself. But I couldn’t. What had worked for so long before would no longer work, but I knew. I knew I couldn’t let him live. It’s my responsibility, mine alone, to make sure things go as they’re supposed to. That’s the way it has to be, that’s the way of the world. That’s what I told myself, lied to myself. 

But the truth was, I’d already made my decision.

“Please.”

He begged me one last time, voice soft and childlike, and I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t take his soul away, I couldn’t let him die. Not now. Somehow, Rudy Steiner had done what no person had ever done before; he’d convinced me. He’d convinced me that he shouldn’t die, not then, anyway. Somehow, with deep blue eyes and a tranquil face, Rudy Steiner had convinced me to postpone his death. I heaved a deep sigh, and I knew this decision would haunt me for the rest of time.

“Alright.”

I looked to his body, empty and abandoned. The book thief was next to it, shaking it, screaming at it, “Come on, Rudy, come on, Jesse Owens, don't you know I love you, wake up, wake up, wake up....” Her hands were trembling and her face was white, and I turned to Rudy. I hope now that he understood the magnitude of what I did next. I had never, ever done it before and I would never do it again. Bending over, I allowed Rudy Steiner’s soul to slip from my arms. Watching him tumble slowly, delicately, through the wall of life and death, Rudy Steiner’s eyes shot open, electric blue and alive, gloriously alive, just as the book thief pressed her mouth to his. Blinking groggily, he smirked against Liesel’s lips, “Told you you’d kiss me one day,  _ saumensch. _ ” He rasped, and the book thief gasped and pulled away, tears still washing the smoke and dirt off her cheeks, “Rudy!” She screamed, hands not leaving his shoulders. She slapped him.

“Rudy, you  _ arschloch! _ ” 

The book thief glowered down at him with a burning-eyed ferocity. But her eyes were smiling and she couldn’t fight the grin spreading across her face, and Rudy smiled, a beautiful, arrogant smile, “Miss me,  _ saumensch?”  _ I turned away. My job was done. There were other appointments to attend to, other souls to collect.

But I have never forgotten that moment, and I never will.


End file.
